


Lessons

by Stormlyht



Series: This Town That Loves Me [25]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: M/M, Pack Dynamics, Talking, This town loves Derek, stiles not so much
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-09
Updated: 2015-04-09
Packaged: 2018-03-22 00:35:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3708697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stormlyht/pseuds/Stormlyht
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek takes his betas to clean up the old Hale Arena and while he's there, he ends up coming clean on how he chose them all to be in his pack.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lessons

**Author's Note:**

> Hello and good day! Have a chapter, that's a lot of talking, maybe some Derek feels (let me know if I succeeded in that or not, I'm curious), and what I think, more or less, about how Derek chose his pack. I might have certain headcanons that have nothing to do with anything we saw in the show. :P
> 
> Also, this is not the chapter I meant to post, because I realized there was a lot more conversation happening before where I more or less intended this chapter to begin so, um, I had to break it up. I'm honestly hoping I'll be able to write more than just one chapter every 2 weeks so I can start posting weekly again. I've been working bi-weekly between this story and my merman fic because once that's done I'm going to edit it and move forward in my goal of making money with this writing stuff I love to do so much. I have many plans, we'll see how they go. Anyway, my point is that I do have goals that I'm making and I am not forgetting about this story, I am working hard on finishing it, and I'm trying to get to the point where I'm giving you weekly updates again. I love you all, thanks so much for your love for this series! <3
> 
> As usual, no editing, just good old fashioned writing and posting, let me know if there are glaring continuity errors or mistakes so I can fix them!

He hadn’t been out here in years, not since… well, not since. Taking a deep breath in, he let the forest wash over him. When he had been a child, the woods had had a particular scent, like fresh rain, wet earth, growing moss and animals. Derek had been able to track rabbits and squirrels by their claw marks and nut leavings. Everything had been alive, everything had been real, tangible.

Now it was like things were asleep, the earth barely stirring from a slumber that had started eight years ago. He thought being an Alpha, building a pack, living and growing on the land would bring things back, would wake up the land, return the scents he was used to.

It hadn’t happened though, and he couldn’t seem to get the shift down, and he was going to lose it all. Territory, pack, Stiles. He wasn’t just a failure, he was a disgrace. Talia Hale will be rolling in her grave when he lost this fight.

“Are we,” Erica’s voice broke into his thoughts. “Doing something in particular here?”

Derek snapped out of his misery just enough to focus on the project at hand. “Yes,” he said with a nod. “I want you all to stand in a line. Close your eyes, take a deep breath and smell the earth. Try to pick out the lines of magic around you, feel the grid. You should be able to see it in your mind before opening your eyes.” He knew it already, the shape and texture of the magic, but still he did as he was instructing his beta’s to do.

Instantly the lines came into his vision and he opened his eyes to see them in the world. He knew his eyes were red by the way his vision was swimming, focused on life and magic. Looking over at his beta’s, he saw Vernon’s eyes open as well, glowing gold.

“I never knew,” Vernon whispered, eyes traveling over the area.

“What do you see?” Derek asked, almost afraid of the answer he might get. Each beta would see something slightly different, based on their strengths and weaknesses.

“Blood.” Vernon turned to stare at Derek. “How many people have died here?”

“Not as many as you think. Usually battles here don’t end in death.”

“But there are blood lines all over the place,” Vernon protested. He moved closer to Derek, one hand raised for a second before he dropped it. Unwilling to not take that comfort, now that it had been offered, Derek closed the distance and touched Vernon’s arm.

“Some of that is protection spells, some of it is from battles that left a mark on the land, some of it is from death,” Derek said with a nod.

Erica gasped and Derek turned to her, watching her eyes as they glowed brightly. “Holy shit,” she breathed. “There’s so much magic!”

“That’s right,” Derek said. “You can see the strings as they move around the area, right? I thought you had an affinity for magical aura’s.”

“I didn’t know,” Erica said. She moved forward and reached out her hand. He watched as she touched one of the strings, running a finger over it. “This is everywhere?”

“Certain area’s are particularly powerful magic wise, while others just have protection spells or small enchantments. What you are seeing here is generations of magical tampering, layers and layers that have made the area particularly saturated with it.” He gave her a smile and a nod when she glanced at him. She walked further into the area and turned around again and again as she looked it all over.

“It’s creepy, but kind of like spiderwebs all over the place. Only I can see them, just not touch them, not exactly.” Erica passed her hand through a thick clump and frowned. “It almost tickles.”

“I don’t see any of that,” Isaac said and Derek looked over at him to see his eyes open, looking around with a frown.

“What do you see?” Derek asked, squeezing Vernon’s arm again before walking over to Isaac.

“A really thick, solid circle under the ground and a pattern of lines moving out from that,” Isaac said and Derek could smell the frustration.

“What’s bothering you?” Derek paused right next to his first beta and stared at him.

“Well, Vernon’s seeing blood, I don’t see anything like that, Erica’s seeing lines of magic, I guess in the air, all I see is lines on the ground,” Isaac snapped.

Derek looked at Erica. “Erica, do you see the lines in the ground?” Erica paused and looked down, a frown going across her face before she turned around and shook her head. “Vernon?” Derek asked, looking over at the man who was frowning as well, looking in the exact direction that Isaac was.

“No,” Vernon said.

“Each of my betas have different talents,” Derek said, looking back at Isaac. “I didn’t just randomly choose three teenagers out of a hat you know.” All three of them looked over at him. He huffed out a small laugh, feeling ridiculous for how much time had passed before he’d managed to get to this particular lesson.

“Look,” he said. “Each pack has certain strengths, often brought together by the Alpha for those reasons. Some packs, like my family, are born and the people fall into a particular pattern based on the needs of the family. There have been tales about how children will be born with talents suited to the needs of a pack, but that’s never been conclusively tested. Probably because most packs don’t really care about that sort of thing if they’re a family pack. Just being together is enough.”

Derek took a deep breath and touched Isaac’s shoulder. “I brought you in because of your strength of character and the ability you have to sense ties. The ties between people, the ties between territory, I knew that if the bite took with you, you would be good at keeping our lines secure because you would be able to see them.”

He looked over at Erica. “I chose you because I knew you were already in touch with magic, and you’d take to it better than others would.”

“How’d you know that?” Erica asked, crossing her arms.

“Your sickness. I could see it around you, and I could see how it tapped into the magic around you, probably it was sometimes aggravated by certain magical properties or activities, and you would never have known.”

She wrinkled her nose. “So, was my epilepsy caused by magic then?”

“No,” Derek shook his head. “You just had the inclination to it, I knew if you survived the bite that you would be able to see those lines that others couldn’t.”

“And me?” Vernon asked softly.

Derek gave him a smile. “You are a protector. Every pack needs someone who acts as a boundary between the pack and enemies, not to mention a person who will help protect pack from pack.”

“Pack from pack?” Vernon asked as he considered that. Derek let him think for a while and he smiled when Vernon’s eyes opened wider. “A mediator.”

“That’s right. You would do anything for, what did you say, people to sit with you at lunch.” Derek only felt a little badly for creating his pack using their insecurities and desires to further his needs. Vernon blushed and Derek nodded. “In this way you will protect that which means the most to you. Erica, Isaac, me. You would stand between two of us fighting, you would make us stop, you would make us pause.”

“That’s devious,” a voice said from behind them and Derek snapped around to stare at Deucalion. “Building a pack using people, Derek, you should be ashamed.” Deucalion was grinning, and Derek crossed his arms.

“You’ve done the same, and you’ve killed people to do it,” Derek said.

“It’s true.”

They stared at each other for several moments before Derek felt his beta’s form a line around him.

“I came to help,” Deucalion said. “I heard a rumor there was going to be a cleaning party here today.”


End file.
